A roof flashing structure is disclosed which is used to seal around tubing and wires passing through a roof which primarily is used for solar collectors. This roof flashing structure includes an elastomeric sealing member which is molded into a permanent bond with the housing of the flashing and is capable of forming a tight seal with a length of tubing or wire.
Because of the recent awareness of the earth's limited potential for supplying man with energy the development of devices which can directly harness the sun's energy has increased. Presently the field of solar energy is being expanded to include devices for heating swimming pools, hot water for homes and devices for supplying heat to heat reservoirs which are utilized for heating the buildings. Associated with these solar devices and in fact one of the primary components is the solar collector.
Sunlight only contains a particular radiant flux. There are losses converting this radiant flux into heat energy or some other energy form. Presently this necessitates the use of solar collectors having a large surface area in order to adequately harvest as much of the sun's energy as as possible. A solar collector harvests the sun's energy by utilizing this energy to heat a liquid or gas. For home use, generally a liquid is heated. This requires passing a volume of liquid through the collector and then passing the heated liquid to the appliance which will utilize the heated liquid. Because of the space taken up by solar collectors the most useful location for them is on the roof of the building wherein the appliance is located. At the minimum, an inlet and an outlet pipe must be passed through the roof to the collector. Additionally, if a pump or switch is located in conjunction with the collector an electrical wire must also be passed through the roof.
In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,578 and my Patent application Ser. Nos. 883,420 and 042,216 I described certain roof flashing structures each having unique and novel properties which are useful to seal the openings wherein a pipe used as a sewer vent or the like is passed through the roof. Generally such pipes have diameters at least as large as one and a half inches. My prior roof flashing structure and other prior roof flashing structures are adapted to accept one size of pipe having a set outside diameter.
The presently known roof flashing structures, since they are designed only for plumbing vent pipes and the like, simply do not lend themselves to applications involving the small diameter tubing and/or wires which must pass through a roof before being connected to the collector. As such the present solar installations are left with the antiquated methods previously used to seal pipes such as caulking or other mastic type materials and sheet metal flashings. From the above it is evident that there exists a need for a roof flashing structure which can accept and seal the small diameter tubes and wires used in conjunction with solar collectors.